Goal For The Green

UPDATE: Congratulations to ecodads for achieving their funding goal of $20,000, with 6 days left to go.  So far, there are 69 backers and $20,562 pledged for the project of making Touchable Textbook Apps a reality!

For the past few months, Michael Leifer, a Cultural Anthropologist, has been creating some really fun and Educational (Interactive Textbook) Apps for Kids and Teens, with his friend Jory Prum, (who has worked with Jim Henson / Muppets, Pixar and Lucas Arts).

Here’s a demo video link that they put up to give it a kickstart :   Kickstart, is a crowd funding way to help promote your idea or project.  Note the deadline is in nine more days, and Michael and the ecodads group is very close to reaching their goal. Currently, their project is 77% funded.  It will be funded if at least $20,000 is raised by 8:39AM on Thursday, December 27,2012. They only need $4,535 to make this happen! Your support of this project, can help make a difference in educational needs across the country.

The California next-generation parenting movement ecodads® co-founded by Michael Leifer, have created a new form of fun Interactive Textbook (iBook) Applications for the Apple® iPad® called “Touchable Books.”  They target and engage the iGeneration of digital-native students. These iBook modules bring to life classroom units with touch-based local habitat maps, 3d views from atop the Golden Gate bridge, time lapse cinematography, videos from award-winning directors, interactive slideshows, an instantly accessible glossary, flashcards, games and content review quizzes. A demo video of the technology, full description and strategic roll-out plan for the apps can be viewed at the Kickstarter crowd-funding project.

For the 1st set of iBooks, they have selected a landmark CURRICULUM called “Education and the Environment” (which has been unanimously-approved by the CA State Board of Education and is for K-12th graders).  It also works with Common CORE and STAR Testing Education Standards, so teachers can easily integrate these apps into their classrooms.

The K-12 curriculum is comprised of 85 units teaching select science, history and social science academic standards. Naturally, the successful elements of this effort could be utilized to benefit schools across our country, AND produce generations of environmental stewards, that learn and seek environmental jobs of the future.

I would like to encourage you to review the video demo and brief plan, and to consider lending your support. What better way is there to give educators a wonderful way to merge experiences in the classroom with enriching activities in school gardens, parks, aquariums, and science centers, than with these interactive apps?

According to CalRecycle Director Caroll Mortensen, “Our biggest challenge in bringing the EEI to teachers and students is the high cost of printing and distribution. The proposed EEI apps will significantly reduce costs and give students an improved and interactive environment-based curriculum.”

If we as a nation are serious about providing our students a world-class education, be it home school or whatever option we choose, we need a plan that leaves no school and no child offline, or left without this option.  This is achievable, by making these apps widely available, and by reaching the funding goal.

Together, with your help and support, we can collectively demonstrate a new guiding model for the antiquated textbook publishing industry.  This can and will improve both our student comprehensive and education system overall, and it can happen nationwide.  Lets invest in our children, their future, and a green future for everyone. Together we are working toward many brighter tomorrows.

Related articles

• Touching Base with Touchable Books, a Kickstarter Project

How to be Safe and Green

We just celebrated  Earth Day and Earth Month,and that helps bring communities together.  I just wanted to share a story about “getting the (your) neighborhood to go green.”  To do that, I wanted to make sure you knew about Nextdoor.  It’s the free private social networking site for neighborhoods that’s now in 46 of the United States (and growing) rapidly. With the rash of home invasions and burglaries on the rise across the nation, this is a very welcome way to keep neighborhoods safe.

Here are 4 Ways to Go Green in your Neighborhood

It’s the time of year that means people are recycling, focusing more on sustainability and perhaps thinking about “going green.”  It’s not enough for just one person to do it, so have you ever wondered how you could get your entire neighborhood onboard with the idea?  Here are some bright ways to go green, and take your neighbors along with you in the adventure, using the new, free and secure social media service for neighborhoods.  It’s called Nextdoor.

1. Organize an e-cycling event for neighbors. It’s not always easy to properly recycle your old TVs and electronics, but what if your community had a day where a local volunteer stopped by your house and hauled away your unwanted gadgets? Communities using Nextdoor, can create calendar events and and invite their neighbors. Is someone in your community willing to donate an afternoon to drive people’s old gadgets and electronics to an e-cycling center? Let your community know, set up a calendar event and invite your neighbors to add their unwanted gadgets to the drive.

2. Share and share alike. You don’t have to break the bank every spring and buy new gardening gear and tools. Think sustainably and use Nextdoor to borrow a ladder (instead of buy one). Do you have power tools that you only use once a year? Post a notice to your Nextdoor community and let people rent or borrow your equipment. Do you have a service, like landscaping or plumbing, to offer? Let your neighbors know and stay local. Think of all the time and money you can save.

3. Donate your unwanted possessions. Organize bi-annual donation drives, or have a neighborhood sale. Designate a drop-off location for clothes, books, furniture, games and more, and donate it to your favorite charitable organization.

4. Organize a neighborhood cleanup.  Post before and after pictures from the event to Nextdoor when you’re finished.

Why Go Social With Neighborhoods? Data & Insights:
– Over 65% of all online adults use social networking sites. (Pew Research)

– One in three Americans don’t know their neighbors by name. (Pew Research)

– Social networks in a neighborhood lower crime, improve public health and raise test scores. It helps keep neighborhoods safe, like a blockwatch but is conductd on line by those who want to participate. (Robert Putnam, Harvard Professor and Author: Bowling Alone)

About Nextdoor
Nextdoor is a free and secure social network that connects people across the United States with their neighbors. Nextdoor communities are self-started by individuals like you and  me, in communities who want to connect with their neighbors over a verified, secure infrastructure.  Nextdoor is a San Francisco based startup, founded in 2010 by internet veterans with deep experience in creating thriving online communities.

Nextdoor has been featured in publications like USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, AARP, TIME, Forbes, FastCompany and more.

– Learn More About Nextdoor
– Nextdoor in the News
– Like Nextdoor on Facebook!

Here is a little about What People are Saying About Nextdoor:
– We’ve seen lost pets returned in minutes, ping pong tables finding new homes in a matter of posts, and a heightened sense of security in the neighborhood when a recent crime wave hit. – Brent Bamberger, Nextdoor Sleepy Hollow

– We have an elderly neighbor who has cancer and is quite frail. She had a security issue and when other neighbors got wind of it through Nextdoor, they came out of the woodwork to offer assistance. – Bob Thornburg, Nextdoor Sol y Lomas

So check here at Nextdoor to see if it is available in your community.  If it’s not,you can be the one to get Nextdoor started in you community. You’ll be the center of the buzz in your neighborhood, while working toward a safer and better tomorrow for everyone.

Hopefully, when you view this infographic, you will turn over a new leaf, for your health, if you haven’t already. It is no small wonder why Michelle Obama, has initiated her Let’s Move campaign, aimed at fighting childhood obesity. People, we need to walk away from the super-sized portions, and YES, get moving, because AMERICA is FAT! Just look at this, it spells it all out right here, LOUD and CLEAR!  If this doesn’t get you motivated, then I don’t know what will.  To your HEALTH and a leaner future!

Created by: MedicalCodingCareerGuide.com